Name: Katie Capener Hall
Grade Level: 9th Grade
Subject: Physics
Lesson Type: Content
Content Objective: Students will create an experiment to demonstrate their
understanding of Isaac Newton’s third law of motion.
Language Objectives:
Listening: Students will listen to each group present their project and be able to identify
one thing they learned from the presentation.
Speaking: Students will orally present their project to the class, explaining how their
experiment demonstrates the law of motion.
Reading: In small groups students will read an article entitled “Lesson 4: Newton's Third
Law of Motion” on the website
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws/U2L4a.html. They will then check
their understanding by answering the example problems together and checking their
answers.
Writing: Students will write a one page paper on how their experiment demonstrates the
law of motion, using an essay format.
Instructional Features:
Addressing Students’ Background Knowledge
Students’ background knowledge will be addressed by having a quick write at the
beginning of the class, which states: Write about a time today when a physical action you
made affected the way something moved. (Example: you may have… kicked a soccer
ball, played tug-of-war, etc.)
The class will then discuss times in which they applied force to different objects
and how they made the objects move in regard to Newton’s third law of motion.
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Activities &Procedures
Students’ attention will be drawn to the objectives on the board. One student will be
asked to read the objective. Another student will be asked to put the objective in their
own words for the class.
Students will be placed in groups of four
Students will be asked to look at the article entitled “Lesson 4: Newton’s Third Law
of Motion” on the website.
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws/U2L4a.html
Students will be asked to look through the article and make predictions about what
they think Newton’s Third Law of Motion will be about. The teacher will prompt
students by asking them to look at the pictures throughout the article and also by
reminding them about the two previous laws of motion which students have studied.
Predictions will be written on the board.
Students will read the article entitled “Lesson 4:Newton’s Third Law of Motion” on
the website http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws/U2L4a.html
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Then the class will look back at the predictions made earlier and decide which
predictions were true and which were false.
Students will come up with a definition of what Newton’s Third Law of Motion is.
This definition will be written on the board.
Students will look at the vignettes at the end of the end of the article and answer the
questions in their groups. They will check their answers with the answers on the
website.
The teacher will then demonstrate an experiment for the class. The experiment will
go as follows. A balloon will be blown up and taped to a straw and the straw
threaded through a string. The teacher will then tie the string across the room. The air
will then be allowed to escape from the balloon and the balloon will move forward.
The teacher will explain how this experiment demonstrates Newton’s Third Law of
Motion. (As the air coming out of the balloon exerts a force on the air in the class
room an equal and opposite force pushes the balloon forward.)
The teacher will provide several items such as balloons, ropes, strings, weights, etc.
for the students to design their own experiment to demonstrate Newton’s Third Law
of Motion.
The students will then be asked to brainstorm an experiment in their groups. Writing
down all ideas.
The students will then come up with a simple experiment which they will
demonstrate to the class.
Each experiment will be demonstrated and explained to the class.
For homework the students will be asked to write a one page paper with the following
criteria (#1-5). They will also be given a rubric which outlines the requirements of
the paper.
1. Explain Newton’s Third Law of Motion in your own words.
2. Describe how your experiment demonstrated Newton’s Third Law of Motion
3. Describe how one other experiment demonstrated Newton’s Third Law of
Motion.
4. Name three situations in your day where you witnessed Newton’s Third Law of
Motion in action.
5. What do you think the world would be like if Newton’s Third Law of Motion was
not in effect?
Adaptations
Language Proficiency
Pre-Emergent- Emergent
Adaptations
*Reading: Students will read the text as a
whole class and discuss it together.
A vocabulary sheet will be provided, which
will contain pictures of the vocabulary
terms.
*Writing: Students will draw and label a
picture of their experiment, using one-word
labels.
*Speaking: Students can use one word
Intermediate
Advanced-Fluent
descriptors to explain their experiment.
*Listening: Students can identify what they
learned from other students’ experiments
by using one word responses.
*Reading: A vocabulary sheet will be
provided, which will contain pictures of the
vocabulary terms.
*Writing: Students will describe their
experiment in sentence form.
*Speaking: Students can use one-sentence
descriptions to explain their experiment.
*Listening: Students can identify what they
learned from other students’ experiments
by using one-sentence responses.
*Reading: A vocabulary sheet will be
provided, which will contain pictures of the
vocabulary terms.
*Writing: Students will write a paragraph
describing their experiment.
*Speaking: Students can use one-paragraph
descriptions to explain their experiment.
*Listening: Students can identify what they
learned from other students’ experiments
by using one-paragraph responses.
ELL Instructional Strategies
Cognitive Strategies:
• Summarizing: Students will be asked to summarize Newton’s third law of motion
in their paper, for the purpose of reviewing the information and putting it into
their own words to help them remember it.
Metacognitive Strategies:
• Predicting: Students will preview the material before they read it in order to get
them thinking about what they are going to read and bringing up background
knowledge that they can build upon as they read.
Harrell and Jordan Strategies:
• Interactive Read Aloud: Students will read the book and stop periodically through
their reading in order to talk about what they read and clear up any
misunderstandings.
• Skills Grouping: Students will be grouped in such a way to progress their
learning. The grouping strategies are listed below.
Grouping
Reading: While the students are reading the information they will be grouped
homogeneous according to language proficiency. This will allow the students to use their
L1 in discussing the reading if necessary and the teacher will be able to focus attention on
groups that need more help understanding the information. Also with homogeneous
grouping it will be easier to provide adaptive texts.
Experiments & Presenting: While the students are developing their experiments and
presenting them to the class they will be grouped heterogeneously according to language
proficiency. This will allow them to share different ideas from their different adaptive
texts. Also students who are more proficient in English will be able to model vocabulary
relevant to the chapter for students who are less proficient in English. While presenting
the project each member of the group will have a different part to present. These parts
can be given out according to language proficiency. With heterogeneous grouping each
group will be more likely to be able to fully explain their project as more proficient
students will be able to help less proficient student convey their message.
Assessment
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Formative Assessment
Students will be assessed on their performance on the online questions. The
teacher will observe how students do on these questions and offer further
explanation as needed.
The teacher will circulate to each group as they create their projects and discuss
with each group how their experiment demonstrates Newton’s third law of
motion. The teacher will provide feedback on the experiments and guide students
as needed.
The teacher and other classmates will provide feedback to the students as they
present their experiments to the class. Questions will be asked to check for
understanding of the material.
Summative Assessment
Students will be graded on their final reflection of the project. They will hand in
a one page paper answering the questions listed in the Activities and Procedures
portion of the lesson.